Sunday, October 17, 2010

California Part IV (Heron's Head Park, San Francisco)

My last day in California I googled Important Bird Areas in San Francisco and came up with quite a few parks on the bay... My friend and I picked Heron's Head Park and headed out... The directions were interesting. I had never seen the SF projects before... Eventually we found the park, nestled between the ghetto and an industrial area.

The first birds to greet us were White-crowned Sparrows...

Then came the water birds...

American Avocets

Black-bellied Plover

Are these next ones Least Sandpipers?

I loved this Snowy Egret...

This looks like a Spotted Sandpiper...

I took a ton of terrible photos of this scene:

There's quite a lot going on, but it's hard to tell... In the foreground is the Great Egret, then on the left are some terns, what looks like some Willets, and a pair of Black Oystercatchers.

I had read that Elegant Terns hang out at the park so I'm guessing that is what these guys are...

Nice! John Rakestraw likes to say that one can find birds in not the most scenic spots that people think they should be in. This looks like one of those. I love the photo of the WC Sparrows. Those Egrets are so pretty, huh? Too bad someone tagged the cool mural on that boxcar thing.